EP 30 · 2022-05-23 · 1:18:18
How Lindsay Construction Grew 7x Without Losing Control — Cory Bell & Devin Hartnell
Lindsay Construction's Cory Bell and Devin Hartnell on growing a regional GC 7x by hiring for character, staging growth in controlled jumps, and embedding in Atlantic Canada communities.
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⟶ The story, written up — a sharp read with every fact on the record. Or skip straight to the moments that matter, as clips.
// CHAPTERS — TAP TO JUMP THE PLAYER
0:03Introductions & Hockey Talk — Host introduces Cory Bell (President & CEO) and Devin Hartnell (COO) of Lindsay Construction. Light opening banter around NHL playoffs and backyard rinks.2:12Cory's Journey: Field to President — Cory traces his path from Dal engineering grad to project engineer at Elliott Excavators, a pay-cut move to Liverpool for Lindsay's, then through PM, estimating, VP operations, and into ownership/presidency by 2009. Key learning: spending time with veteran superintendents and listening.9:10Devin's Journey: Hockey Scholarship to COO — Devin explains how a Michigan Tech hockey scholarship led to an engineering degree, post-grad hockey, then following his wife's Dal PhD opportunity to Halifax. His first job was the QE2 hospital expansion — two years on site absorbing multi-stakeholder perspectives from field to architect to owner.13:20Managing Change Orders & Communication — Discussion on picking up the phone versus email, being comfortable in constructive confrontation, and the internal 'director series' for continuing education. The central argument: communication skills matter more than technical skills for career advancement in construction.17:10Current Projects: Portfolio Breadth — Lindsay's handles ~200-250 projects/year from small-jobs/service work to major healthcare. Portfolio: Cape Breton Regional Hospital (with Pomerleau), IWK, QE2, multi-unit residential across Atlantic Canada, Burnside tilt-up industrial, Brigadoon Village kids camp, and Cabot resort work.22:35Supply Chain, Labor & Cape Breton Challenges — Deep dive into the labor crisis (skilled tradespeople, PMs), supply chain volatility post-COVID, and the compounded difficulty of the Cape Breton market: limited labor pool, multiple mega-projects competing for same trades, 30% cost premium for mobilization. The Pomerleau JV rationale explained.28:55Managing 7x Growth: Systems, Stages & the Pomerleau Partnership — Cory and Devin explain growth as a series of intentional jumps — pause at each level, eliminate blind spots, then backfill with CFO, HR, legal/risk director. The 'bat singles' analogy for sector entry: build a healthcare resume from $7-10M projects before going after the $200M+ cape breton hospital. Partnership with Pomerleau on Cape Breton Regional: complementary resumes, shared bid criteria, seamless MOU process.36:40Indigenous Partnerships & Diversity — Lindsay hired Atlantic Canada's first indigenous relationship coordinator. Partnerships with Millbrook First Nation, Goose Bay, and others structured as mutual-benefit labour pipelines: apprenticeship, mentorship, spin-off small business creation. Also covers women in construction, African Nova Scotians, and diversity scholarships through NSCC.44:55Community & Philanthropy: Cory's Boards — Cory discusses CANS board/chair tenure, IWK Foundation (Great Big Dig, NICU fundraising chair), incoming Make-A-Wish chair, Trailblazers for Cancer, and Halifax Partnership — chairing the city's new 5-year economic growth strategy. Devin praises his leadership.50:50Summit Academy of Active Learning — Devin co-founded a Bedford-based private school (junior primary to grade 9) five years ago, now at 175 students, centred on high academics, physical activity, and experiential/community-based learning. The school recharges him during tough business days.58:50Youth Pipeline, Trades Stigma & NSCC — Lindsay's involvement with Building Futures for Youth (founding CANS chair), NSCC scholarships with preferences for underrepresented groups. The 'just' word problem: cultural stigma against trades. Dozens of NSCC grads in Lindsay's office and field. Company growth as a deliberate talent-retention strategy.1:06:25Mental Health & Vulnerability in Leadership — Post-pandemic wear and tear on 600+ employees. Normalising mental health through a 120-person Bell Let's Talk Zoom call led by Cory, followed by a company walk. Leadership vulnerability as a management tool: when leaders show the human side, staff open up and retention improves.1:10:55Outlook, Risks & Wrap — Optimistic but watchful for 2022 headwinds: rising interest rates, hyperinflation, potential private-sector slowdown echoing 2008. The 600 weekly paychecks metric as Cory's night-time motivator. Devin closes with gratitude for the Halifax/Atlantic Canada opportunity.
// THE INTRO
In this 78-minute episode Daniel Arsenault sits down with Cory Bell (President & CEO) and Devin Hartnell (COO) of Lindsay Construction, one of Atlantic Canada's largest and oldest regional general contractors. The conversation spans their parallel career paths from field engineer to ownership, the discipline behind Lindsay's 5-7x revenue growth over the prior decade, and the deliberate sequencing of internal hires (CFO first, then HR, then legal/risk) that kept expansion from feeling out of control. Standout themes include: hiring for intangible character traits over technical skills; the "bat singles" growth philosophy that built an 8-year healthcare sector reputation culminating in the Cape Breton Regional Hospital project with Pomerleau; the strategic logic behind the L360 maintenance/energy-retrofit arm; first-nations and indigenous partnership programs; normalising mental health conversations with a 600-person workforce; and a frank read on supply-chain and inflationary headwinds as of mid-2022. The guests are candid about what the PM-to-president identity shift actually costs, and the IWK NICU/PICU and Brigadoon Village projects illustrate how Lindsay chooses community-impact work as a talent retention tool.
// THE LESSONS
See all 15 lessons ▸Spending time in the field with veteran superintendents early in your career accelerates leadership development faster than any management course.
“show up to the site with a cup of coffee — it's amazing what you learn by handing someone a cup”
When hiring, prioritise intangible character traits — work ethic, teamwork, communication, commitment — over technical knowledge, because the trade can be taught but character cannot.
“the physical experience of construction can be taught; it's all of those other intangible characteristics that will define who the highest performers are”
Phone calls resolve disputes faster than email chains; insisting on direct conversation is a competitive advantage in an industry retreating behind text.
“three emails and nobody understood — all it took was one phone call and five minutes talking to the PM”
Constructive conflict — deliberately surfacing disagreement — prevents compounding mistakes and drives better decisions than a culture of agreement.
“in order to get better we need to have conflict — if we keep agreeing you're going to make the same mistakes over again”
Transitioning from PM to president requires putting aside the identity of 'builder' and learning finance and business from scratch — the discomfort is essential, not optional.
“I needed to understand the difference between an income statement and a balance sheet — literally — and taking it from scratch”
Grow in staged jumps: reach a new revenue level, pause to eliminate blind spots and backfill key hires (CFO → HR → legal/risk), then proceed — never run ahead of your infrastructure.
“we kind of felt like are we feeling a little bit out of control? That's the pause — next year get used to where we are, make sure we don't have blind spots”
Enter a new sector by batting singles: win small projects to build the resume before pursuing marquee work — Lindsay's 8-year healthcare staircase from $7M to the Cape Breton Regional Hospital proves it works.
“we don't swing for the fences — we bat singles all day long and that's how we generate our runs”
Form a JV when neither party alone meets the client's RFP criteria — combine complementary resumes, divide scope clearly, and formalise with an MOU before the bid.
“we want this project — we say okay well this is where we'll play, this is where you'll play, put together the package real seamless with an MOU”
Indigenous partnership programs that include apprenticeship and spin-off business creation address labor shortages while creating durable community benefit — a competitive differentiator in rural mega-projects.
“our goal is always to bring people on, help train and mentor, and then have them go back into their community and start a small business”
Hiring an indigenous relationship coordinator before you need one signals genuine commitment and yields better community outcomes than reactive inclusion efforts.
“we were the first Atlantic Canadian contractor to hire an indigenous relationship coordinator — just to teach us”
Company growth is a retention tool: staff stay when they can see the path to a new business unit, a new specialty, or a seat at a business plan that Lindsay will fund.
“our growth is a product of our young smart energetic staff pushing us — we're not losing them, so what do we need to do?”
A post-construction maintenance and energy-retrofit arm (L360) extends client relationships, captures the last-1% project close-out problem, and opens a greenfield revenue stream as building owners decarbonise.
“you buy a car and it comes with a warranty — most construction warranties are a year; this is a program that allows you to stay connected and maintain the buildings”
In a volatile supply-chain and inflation environment, the risk management advantage is in paying close attention to client runways, not just your own backlog.
“we're talking to our clients — we understand what the runways look like and make sure we have the right number of people doing the right type of thing”
Normalising mental health at the executive level — leaders publicly sharing their own struggles — unlocks honesty throughout the organisation and reduces hidden attrition.
“I led a zoom call for 120 staff and just said I struggle at times — normalize it — and then people started sharing stories”
Maintaining a balanced public/private project mix protects a GC against single-sector downturns; Lindsay's deliberate shift toward public sector supplemented private sector saturation.
“there's only so much private sector out there — we like to have a very good balance of public and private”
// CLIPS FROM THIS EPISODE
Story · 2:58
“lindsey's reached out and asked me if i wanted to take a pay cut and moved to liverpool”
Framework · 4:09
“we had a lot of great experienced people in particular out in the field our superintendents”
Story · 5:52
“she called me one day and we were getting married that summer and said you ever been to halifax”
Emotional · 9:58
“it's a bit humbling because i enjoyed being a project manager i enjoyed building stuff”
Framework · 11:02
“it's still to this day one of the things that i look at in a resume”
Hot take · 12:54
“you got to pick up the phone and talk to somebody”
Framework · 14:04
“in order to get better we need to have conflict”
Framework · 32:40
“i always use my baseball analogy we don't swing for the fences we bat singles all day long”
Hot take · 34:19
“just from a common sense standpoint you would look at it and think”
Framework · 36:56
“again like talk a little bit about knowing who you are”
Framework · 41:36
“we've talked today about challenges with labor and finding people”
Story · 53:07
“a lot of people say how the heck would you think of starting a private school”
Hot take · 58:14
“i don't like the word just because they'll say sally is just doing this going to nscc”
Emotional · 1:09:33
“we did a zoom call we had 120 people come online all of our staff”
Hot take · 1:10:45
“our industry is supposedly known for being rough and tough”
Hot take · 1:15:49
“it's just it's hard to believe that it's the most busy construction time ever”
All 15 lessons from this episode, on one page.
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// FEATURED BUSINESSES
// COMPANIES & ORGS ✓ verified
Lindsay Construction Limited ▸Cory BellDevin Hartnell, P.Eng., MBAPomerleau Inc. ▸Brigadoon VillageLindsay360 / LMMW Group Ltd. (L360)Summit Academy of Active LearningMillbrook First Nation
// PROJECTS NAMED
Cape Breton Regional HospitalQEII Hospital Parking Garage ExpansionIWK NICU/PICU RenovationBrigadoon VillageHalifax HospiceDiscovery Centre HalifaxIDEA Building (Dalhousie)Coast Guard Design-Build (Newfoundland)Paradise Elementary School (Newfoundland)St. John Field HouseThe Wentworth (Saint John multi-unit residential)Cabot Resort Housing
SOURCE: podscope · public episode data · 893-orseP8w